I would say the best example of this in the insect world are ants. They have a clear destination. They use collision avoidance. And they often have a predefined path--prepared by the dragging thoraxes of the "lead ant."

Impressive, for something with just a compass and altitude sensor. But isn't the Rumba vacuum cleaner already doing something like this? Granted the Rumba doesn't have a 'destination' to speak of but relies on bumping into surfaces to re-orient itself.

So, just give it a compass heading, and presumably some sort of altitude range and destination coordinates(?), and it will muddle its way through without collision avoidance system complexities.

Imagine applying such a scheme to self-driving? The "muddle through" approach. It would take a lot of trial and error to find the correct path, and you'd have cars that look more like bumper cars, but hey.

Not sure if insects, say flies, truly behave this way, though. Flies will bump into windows, until they finally find a way out to the light, but I always thought that's because they don't know about transparent glass?

In conjunction with unveiling of EE Times’ Silicon 60 list, journalist & Silicon 60 researcher Peter Clarke hosts a conversation on startups in the electronics industry. One of Silicon Valley's great contributions to the world has been the demonstration of how the application of entrepreneurship and venture capital to electronics and semiconductor hardware can create wealth with developments in semiconductors, displays, design automation, MEMS and across the breadth of hardware developments. But in recent years concerns have been raised that traditional venture capital has turned its back on hardware-related startups in favor of software and Internet applications and services. Panelists from incubators join Peter Clarke in debate.